Lulu’d out from head to toe... After hooking you on your favorite lockdown leggings, Lululemon is stepping into the shoe game. On Tuesday, the Canadian athleisure brand unveiled “Blissfeel,” a $150 women’s running shoe set to hit shelves this month. Back in 2019, Lulu execs said footwear was a natural next step. And since then the brand has only grown stronger. Last fiscal year’s sales are expected to come in at $6.3B, up from $4.4B in 2020.
- Staying true to functional fashion: Lulu’s core brand. The stretchy-mesh sneaks will be available in 10 pastel colors.
- First steps: Lulu is rolling out three other shoe styles later this year, including post-workout slides and cross-training high-tops. (FYI: the men's collection won’t be ready until 2023.)
Goodbye, kitten heels… Casual-shoe demand was supercharged during the pandemic as we ditched leather soles for Crocs and foam kicks.
- But the $70B sneaker industry has historically underserved women, often simply resizing men’s shoes and calling it a day. That’s an opportunity Lulu sees ripe for disruption.
- Female-vantage: Online shoe reseller StockX says women’s sneaker sales have more than doubled in the past six years, and the number of women’s sneaker listings has jumped 1,500%.
Fashion is key to the sole… Lulu's breakthrough was making leggings cool enough to rock in the yoga studio and at happy hour. Now it's using that brand cachet to break into an industry long guarded by OGs like Nike and Adidas. Though they still dominate, their market share has started to erode as upstarts like Allbirds and On gain traction.